Another large turn out for the Sunday morning rides today.  I would guess close to 70 people over all three groups. As has become common over the past few weeks everyone as a group travelled the first 18km as one group. Apart from one of the advanced group rubbing my wheel and going down while we took off from a set of lights there was no real dramas on the transition from South Perth to the base of the hills. One carload of hoons did mouth of the group of us catching up after the hold-up from the down rider. However the car was stopped at a red light and one of the advance group members served her opinion right back to them.

Crystal Brook road is where the Transitional riders pulled right and parted ways with the intermediate and advanced group.  Jamie Was keen today and kept going on with the others.  Like to hear how you went Jamie. Now our group had shrunk to about nine the workload picked up for the trip up Crystal Brook Road.  Once we Turned right onto Kelvin Road Steve and I quickly picked up the pace towards 40km/h before being told to slow down as we had dropped a few. Tailwind people make use of it was my thought. Anyways after everyone was back on Steve and I controlled the pace at around 32/35 km/h all the way down Kelvin Road crossing Albany Hwy onto Olga Rd veering left at the roundabout onto Burslem Dr. Once we crossed Fremantle Rd and were onto Warton Rd I decided to pull left and let a few others the chance of leading for a bit.  Sorry Steve I should have probably mentioned it but I wasn’t sure those following wanted to take the lead.  Happily Darryl did move up and I drifted back. Steve soon joined me at the back for a break also. For the time being Stint at the front was done. Sitting at the back and watching the others the group was working well sticking together. Calling, signalling and generally sharing of the lead. Because of the lights, roadworks and things I didn’t think starting a roll through along here was a wise move.  I think it turned out to be the right call.

We eventually reached Jandakot Rd and picked up small tailwind again.  This is where I called for the roll through to begin. Today the roll through worked really well.  People were calling last wheel.  Calling clear so riders pulled in front. Things worked really well. It wasn’t planned but Shaw seemed to be in the fast lane at the base of every small climb along this stretch. Ronny you will have to come on a Sunday ride and work out why the roll through flows much better. My thought is it may be the size of the group. Maybe when its a large Saturday group it gets split into two for the roll through. I know it should probably work the same with any number but yeah. Anyways.  It seemed to take no time and we were approaching the round about for the left turn onto Berrigan Dr.

Turning onto here Doug and I were on the front again.  I suggested we hold the roll through for now.  We have a number of lights to contend with along this stretch and he agreed.  However was the perfect day for this stretch as we again picked up the tail wind. Nice speed of around 30km/h.

Right onto North Lake road and Shaw joined me at the front to help lead this stretch as Doug dropped back to help sweep. I think it was the climb past Adventure World or maybe the next one. Doesn’t matter where but I do want to make mention. As some know Shaw likes to hurt himself. Either that or he likes to play with a heart attack. One of these climbs he dropped back to a very high gear and must have been peddling at least 3 /1 with me and keeping pace. Our speeds were almost deadly equal but he was working mighty hard to match it on his behalf. Was a massive effort and deserved a remark in this write up for sure. Great work mate.  We held the lead for a number more climbs along this section of the ride until Darryl and David stepped forward to take over. There were one set of lights where the lights went orange and then very quickly red. Technically we ran a red light but being on the front the safe option was not to stop so all but two of us made it through the lights and pulled over at a bus stop to wait for the two that could stop to catch up. I think this is was Darryl and David who did stop then took over the lead on the re-join.

From here nothing exciting to report. continued onto Canning Highway and followed the normal Tuesday route. However Once we turned into Fraser Rd I yelled out no cheating we were not taking the Kintail Rd short cut today and the other sweeper helped make sure of that.  Sorry I can’t remember how to say your name never mind spell it buddy. Please add it to the comments. Doug led us through this section which I know from the City of Perth Great bike ride but haven’t done it for the a couple of years so he refreshed our memory. Should call it Masserati central as I counted two of them within a minute of each other. Nice houses round that pocket. After a very quick regroup at the Raffles and Tracy reminding us how much she wanted coffee it was the home stretch to Coode St. David the dingleberry missed the bridge crossing and was doing all the work for some random rider sitting on his wheel down the freeway.  He did realise and I dropped back to meet him as he came over another bridge. After we turned into South Tce the group dropped like flies as people pulled of for home.  Once we reached Coode St only four of us remained. It would have been five but David dropped his chain and the lights of Mill Point Road and Coode St. That was the last we saw of him. The average speed of the ride was around 28km/h I think. Not our fastest but overall this was a great ride today. Overall we stuck together well and kept as a group well.

Peter I think next week would be good to up the difficulty and chuck a couple hills into the ride. Will do a number of us a real benefit.

By Nathan Rzepecki